Periscope accrued over 1300 copyright takedowns in its first three months

Periscope may have won the live streaming battle against Meerkat, but now it has around 1400 new challenges to face.

It’s fair to say that nowadays we have more ways of accessing media than we know what to do with – the likes of iTunes to Spotify, iPlayer, Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video all serving up content ranging from free, to pay-to-play, to subscription services.

There are also, of course, illegitimate methods for procuring such content and whilst Periscope doesn’t actively share copyrighted material directly, it’s certainly become a facilitator for the stuff. Twitter, who owns Periscope just published its latest transparency report, in which it makes reference to some 1391 DMCA takedown notices the live streaming service received in its first few months of active service.

Periscope gained notoriety for these sorts of cases when it served as a prominent platform to watch streams of the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight back in May. Those either attending the fight or who’d paid to watch it simply set up their phones to rebroadcast the event over Periscope. HBO also issued Twitter with takedown notices after the latest episodes of TV series; Game of Thrones also became available through Periscope.

Whilst broadcasting such content live is one problem, the app’s ability to let users re-watch streams also creates a network of on-demand video that may sometimes contain copyrighted work too.

Of the 1391 takedown notices Twitter has been dealt as a result of Periscope’s misgivings, the company has been able to remove 71 per cent of the offending material thus far. More than that of its own service (67 per cent) and its social video app, Vine (68 per cent).

Month on month, the amount of copyrighted content broadcast through Periscope is growing and the patience of content creators and broadcasters such as HBO is likely shrinking in equal measure. Now we just have to wait and see if there’s a breaking point and what that might mean for Periscope and the wider world of live streaming.